One of MMA’s top female prospects, “Rowdy” Ronda Rousey, needed just 25 seconds to win her pro debut Sunday night at King of the Cage: “Turning Point” in Tarzana, California. The Olympic judo bronze medallist submitted highly-touted Brazilian Ediane “India” Gomes with a first-round armbar.

Rousey’s victory, her first as a pro and fourth overall, marked the third time that she has submitted an opponent in less than 30 seconds. Her longest bout to date, a 57-second matchup with Autumn Richardson in November, also ended with an armbar. Rousey’s combined fight time is just 2:09.

After capturing a bronze medal in judo at the 2008 Beijing Games, Rousey looked for a new challenge and began training for mixed martial arts in advance of her amateur MMA debut on August 6, 2010. In a brief bout, Rousey submitted Hayden Munoz with an armbar in 23 seconds. The victory led Rousey to the inaugural Tuff-N-Uff 145-pound women’s tournament on November 12th, where Rousey submitted Richardson in the quarterfinals.

Following her bout with Richardson, Rousey drew criticism from some fans for expressing a desire to challenge Strikeforce Women’s Middleweight Champion Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos by the end of 2011. While critics dismissed the talk as vastly premature, Rousey put on another impressive performance in her next fight when she defeated Taylor “No Mercy” Stratford, the number one-ranked amateur female fighter in the U.S., with an armbar in 24 seconds.

Rather than continue on in the amateur ranks, Rousey opted to drop out of the Tuff-N-Uff tournament in order to make her professional debut. Despite a slight scheduling change and little time to prepare for her opponent, Rousey took a big step up in competition on Sunday for her pro debut against Gomes. She passed the test with flying colours, however, by quickly taking the fight to the ground and finishing with her signature hold. Just 25 seconds had elapsed when Gomes tapped out.

Though her striking remains untested in actual fight competition, Rousey has proven that she is more than capable of taking down quality opponents at will, where those same opponents are fortunate to survive for mere seconds before having to fight off armbars from the judoka. Having now dispatched of a top-ten 145-pound opponent, Rousey is already making big statements as a professional after just a single fight.

robby edwards said: 2011.03.28 16:36

i say through her to the wolves if she wants it, because it willtake a really good grappler to beat cyborg , i mean come on gina even had her mounted, so its been proven that cyborg can be taken down. if this girl got cyborg down , i think she would finish her. i know she hasn’t been tested yet but it seems like she has competed and medaled at the top levels of competiton. look how far damien maia went basically just with jujits skills. i think a lot of these girls have trained dfor yrs and haven’t had the oppurtunity to fight as often as guys coming up do. so when they do get to fight their skills are allready up there it just experience they are lacking. thats why we are seeing a lot of these croos over women doing so well early in their carreers

Kid Azteca said: 2011.03.29 07:59

Wow, wow, wow.
That’s impressive.

Dan P said: 2011.03.30 10:41

She won a Bronze Medal in the Olympics in a real sport, Judo, for God’s sake! It’s no surprise she can grapple. If she were to train in boxing at Gleeson’s in New York. she’d be invincible!

Get in, make money, and get out with your brains intact!

Rafael said: 2011.03.30 20:21

I was very skeptical about Ronda Rousey, but I am sold now on her skills.

The thing is Cyborg escaped from submission attempts by Shayna Baszler (who already beat Sara McMann in a grappling tournment), Hitomi Akano, and Marloes Coenen. She is too fast and too strong.

But this would still be interesting. I am sure she can take down Cyborg, just don’t think she will be as easy to submit.

Now, Ronda Rousey versus Erin Toughill would be interesting, and I would love to see it, as Erin has never been submitted.

keith said: 2011.04.09 07:39

Are you sure that Ediane Gomes is “highly touted?” The embellishment makes the article more interesting; but in reality she has not beaten anyone with a winning record. Nevertheless a fine debut for Rousey.

She definitely was prior to her loss to Amanda Nunes, which was seen as an upset. Her stock has taken a significant hit after this loss, though. No denying that. At this stage, I would no longer say that she is highly-touted, but she certainly was at times in the past.

TA2011 said: 2011.04.19 17:55

I watched Ronda complete at Judo for years. If they fought, when she get Cyborg to the ground that is where Cyborg going to stay.